Chapter 3: The Survivors in the Back Kitchen Wish Xiao Man a Happy Birthday

  "Little chef, quickly close the door! The people outside who have been bitten are beyond saving! They will soon come to bite others!" Short and stout shouted from the outermost side, seeing that the little chef was still standing at the door anxiously looking out.

  The little chef saw it with his own eyes and didn't dare to be stubborn, quietly closing the door tightly. Before long, a fierce pounding sound came from the door. It seemed that the zombies had targeted us who had escaped into the back kitchen.

  "Xiao Nian, if it's really the end of the world, what about Sanya..." I exchanged a tense glance with Luo Xiao Nian. A few years ago, we followed the trend and bought an apartment in Sanya for our parents to retire, they go there every winter, usually leaving in October and returning to Bincheng in May. Now it's November, and our parents are enjoying their leisure time in Sanya.

  "I'll call Dad, you call Mom, quick! But remember, if everything is fine over there, don't tell them what's happening here!" I hastily told Luo Xiaonian, who nodded in tacit understanding. If our parents knew that their two precious daughters were in a dangerous situation, they would immediately fly back to Bincheng, and end up entering an unsafe environment themselves! Luo Xiaonian and I have always been the type to report good news but not bad news.

  The reason why we both call Mom and Dad's phones at the same time is that they always have one person who forgets to turn it on, but fortunately, there will always be one person who thinks of turning it on.

  "Dad!" My phone connected, thank God! The police hotline wasn't working and I was worried that no other calls would go through either! On the other end, Luo Xiaonian hung up, clearly Mom's phone was off again today.

  "Dad's cheerful voice came on, 'Hey! Liang Chen? What's up? Your mom and I are fishing by the sea!'"

  Dad's only hobby in this life is fishing, he fishes wherever there's a river or sea, and doesn't even mind getting sunburned to the point of becoming a dark potato.

  "It's nothing! I was just asking what you two are up to. Where's Mom? Is she swimming in the sea?" I could tell from Dad's tone that everything was fine, and I calmed down, pretending it was no big deal. Luo Xiaonian stuck close to me, listening together.

  "She's in the sea, she swims every day, and I fish every day, haha." Dad likes to report to us what he ate, what he played, met fellow villagers...

  "Sanya's security is okay, right? Nothing happened, did it? You two be careful, I saw online that several foreigners with infectious diseases have gone to Sanya. You guys don't know because you're not online, so it's better if you don't go out for the next few days. Oh, and go buy more food at the supermarket and store them in the fridge. Isn't that a double-door refrigerator I bought for you last time when I went to spend the New Year with Xiaonian? Fill up that fridge!"

  "There's nothing to worry about. It's true that there are many foreigners in Sanya, but your mom and I don't speak any foreign languages, so we never come into contact with them. You two can rest assured." Dad clearly didn't think it was a big deal.

  I'm getting anxious, Luo Xiaonian couldn't help but shout at the phone, "You old man, why are you so disobedient? The residents of Sanya have all reduced going out, don't take it lightly, just go home! First buy more food and water downstairs, we won't answer the phone, you two are not allowed to go downstairs!"

  Our family's Luo Xiaonian gets excited and rushes when speaking, but dad and mom really fall for her trick. Dad repeatedly agrees, saying "alright, alright".

  "What's going on over there, it's so noisy?" Dad asked in confusion. This old man sometimes has a very bad ear, but today he was surprisingly sharp and heard the banging sound from our kitchen door. I quickly replied, "Oh, someone is fighting next door, let's not talk about it, I'll take Luo Xiaonian away from this commotion."

  "Right, right, no need to watch the excitement." Dad believed it and I immediately hung up, what a close call!

  Others also made phone calls to their families, some got through and some didn't. Luo Xiaonian and I listened carefully to their conversations, it turned out that the incident was not only happening at Kai De Square, but the entire city of Bin had fallen into chaos. No wonder 110 was always busy, the whole city was reporting alarms!

  Luo Xiaonian called the company, but surprisingly no one answered! This has never happened before. We frantically called the company employees' mobile phones, but either they were turned off or not answering. My friend and I felt like our heads were going to smoke, had a disaster occurred at the company too?

  "Sister, Computer City must have also had an incident." Luo Xiaonan muttered to herself, the number of people in Computer City was even more than that in the mall. If a riot were to occur, it would be even more terrifying than the one in the mall!

  "I don't believe it..." Luo Xiaonian pressed the phone book on her mobile phone and dialed one by one, finally someone answered, it was one of our old clients, also a small boss of a company in Computer City.

  "Zhang Ge, what's wrong with Computer City?" Luo Xiaonian asked urgently.

  "Something's happened, something's happened, don't you know?" Zhang Ge's voice was very loud, I could hear it clearly from beside him.

  "People in the computer city have gone crazy, it happened suddenly! Luckily I ran fast and now everyone has returned home, the streets are also chaotic, this must be an epidemic!" Zhang Ge said hastily, he retreated quickly.

  "Is the whole city like this?" Luo Xiaonian was stunned, "What...what's going on..."

  The phone suddenly went dead, and the signal on the mobile phone suddenly disappeared. Luo Xiaonian almost didn't get angry enough to smash the phone, and when I looked at mine, it was the same.

  We have completely lost contact with the outside world.

  A tall girl stood beside me and Luo Xiaonian, she took out her phone and dialed a few numbers but none of them went through. Later on, she simply stopped calling, hugged her arms and leaned silently against the wall, not speaking to anyone.

  The mother of the child who was just with her whole family, now tightly holding the little boy who didn't know what happened, crying sadly. I noticed that the father and grandparents were not in the back kitchen, could it be that during the chaos earlier...

  The wife of the short and stout man, the beautiful young woman covered her mouth and sobbed softly, muttering "How could this be? How could this be..." The short and stout man held her tightly and comforted her in a soft voice.

  There were also the two high school girls, the middle-aged couple, and the pair of lovers sitting next to me, all of whom had managed to hide in time in the back kitchen. Along with the young chef, only fourteen people survived, which was not an auspicious number.

  The small back kitchen was noisy outside, with roars, screams, and running sounds, the entire mall was in a state of frenzy. The zombies outside were quickly attracted by the living people inside the mall and ran away. The Blue Ocean restaurant fell into temporary silence, all the sounds came from the mall.

  We fell into silence, except for the man and a tall girl with an expressionless face, everyone else started crying silently, we were shrouded in the shadow of fear, Luo Xiaonian buried her head in my arms like when she was little, I could feel her trembling slightly, and wasn't I too?

  I started to recall the story I had just read, and began to envy the protagonist who was at home when the apocalypse broke out. Her home was on the 18th floor, and she and her husband quickly sealed off the corridor door, turning their home into a safe haven.

  And I and Luo Xiaonian these two unlucky kids, were hiding in the back kitchen of a restaurant in an open shopping mall, not knowing when we could safely go out.

  The only comforting thing is that I and Luo Xiaonian didn't go our separate ways today, and we just had a full meal, so even if we have to hide in this back kitchen, we can hold out for several days.

  Thinking of eating, I quietly scanned the entire kitchen, there was a row of huge refrigerators, inside should be frozen with not many edible things, unfortunately, they were all raw, but if they were like salmon, raw wouldn't be hard to eat, it's just that it's not easy to fill your stomach.

  The little chef leaned against the back door with a serious expression, occasionally listening to the movements outside. It was strange that the sounds outside gradually subsided, and from time to time, one or two loud shouts could be heard, which seemed to come from quite far away.

  "They seem to have all gone downstairs." The little chef said in a low voice.

  "Uncle, are they really zombies?" one of the female students asked Shorty, her voice trembling.

  "Have you guys watched zombie movies?" Short and chubby asked back.

  Not only the two female students, but everyone else also nodded involuntarily. Zombies are not unfamiliar to modern people. With one episode after another of Resident Evil and the globally popular Shaun of the Dead, unless someone is too old to accept this type of theme, most people have seen them or at least heard of them. Anyway, I've never met anyone who doesn't know what zombies are.

  "What's your verdict, then? Even if they're not zombies, they've been infected with some kind of zombie-like contagious disease!" Shorty said seriously. "What kind of infectious disease can turn people into that... I think it's all explainable by the term 'zombie'."

  No one has any objections, I originally thought that someone would argue with Shorty Fatty and refuse to face reality.

  "Must we blow their heads off? But they look just like people..." The long-haired girl in the couple hesitated to ask.

  "It's like in the movies, if you want to survive, you have to dare to take action. If you can't bring yourself to do it, then just wait for what happened to those people earlier." The tall girl suddenly spoke up, and everyone turned to look at her.

  "Good girl! You're definitely a tomboy." The short, fat man nodded in approval, then leaned in closer to the door and listened for a moment. "It sounds like they really did leave? They can't be letting us off that easily, can they?"

  "Unless there's easier prey outside," the tall girl said, her voice a little cold, "an animal's instinct is to pick off the weakest one closest to it, just like lions do. The people in the mall who can't get out of the way are going to be in trouble."

  "If they can't find a living person, they will leave the mall and run onto the streets." I added a sentence, in accordance with the habits of zombies, they would indeed do so.

  Just like her words, from afar, another scream echoed through the mall, and Luo Xiaonian grasped my arm tightly again. Although we didn't know those people being torn apart, nor did we recognize their faces, they were living beings. Thinking about how the outside world had turned into a bloody hell, where humans were being ruthlessly kicked out of the food chain, a sour feeling suddenly spread across my heart. On the kitchen counter, there were still raw fish and meat that hadn't been served yet, and just moments before, we were elegantly picking up slices of raw fish and devouring them. Had we ever thought about the feelings of the fish? In the eyes of the fish, perhaps we too were terrifying zombies...